Power Rangers: Fusion Shift
by Technow
Summary: Fusion Shards. Pieces of a lost artefact, and the key to everything. Lost throughout time and space, no one can know when or where they will appear. And with the Morphing Grid all but offline after a sneak attack by Venjix, there's no one but a new team of rookie Rangers to defend the earth from the threat posed by the Fusion Shards. Full summary inside.
1. Summary

Fusion Shards. Pieces of a lost artefact, and the key to everything. Lost throughout time and space, no one can know when or where they will appear. But when they do, and when one ends up in the wrong hands, only one team can deal with the threat it poses. With a dark enemy nipping at their heels, a clueless government agency constantly getting in their way and a loose cannon collector two steps ahead, the new Rangers have their work cut out for them. Will they rise to the challenge? What will become of the Fusion Shards?


	2. Shards of a Fuser

Ch. 1: Shards Of A Fuser

Somewhere, deep in the heart of the Morphing Grid, a machine endlessly and thanklessly toiled away, doing eternal maintenance and keeping the whole grid running. "Lightspeed Rescue, check check check, now to go check on the fusion core," Alpha-5 muttered to himself as he manoeuvred the endless corridors of the interior of the Morphing Grid, and made his way towards the heart of the grid.

"Huh? Who are you? How did you get in here?" the robot protested at the sight of a figure stealthily trying to make his way through the Grid. Turning and seeing Alpha-5, the figure's hidden eyes widened and he sprinted away into the Grid's heart. "Hey! Wait! Ai-yi-yi-yi, this is bad!" Alpha-5 protested, chasing after the figure.

The figure pulled a hammer out of nowhere as he rushed towards the Fusion Console, the very device Alpha-5 had been going to check up on. "Scanning," Alpha-5 squinted towards the figure as he caught up. "No way, that's impossible!" he gasped, then registered that the figure was about to bring the hammer down on the yellow gem inside the console.

The Fusion Console was a device that controlled all of the mecha. It was what caused and allowed the existence of the combining Zords and Megazords. The large yellow gemstone set into it was known as the fusion core, which provided power to the console, and acted as the console's heart. Without it, the console just wouldn't work.

And before Alpha could stop him, the figure brought the hammer down on the gem, smashing it into dozens of pieces. "Oh no!" Alpha-5 gasped as the pieces, floating in mid-air, began to vanish from the Morphing Grid one by one, even as he wrapped his arms around the figure and brought him to the ground. "How did you get in here, Venjix?" Alpha growled.

The hooded figure, now revealed to be Venjix, laughed, even as Alpha-5 began the task of erasing Venjix's data from the Morphing Grid. "Everything has a back door. Destroy me, Alpha-5, but you can never undo what I have done. The shards of the fusion core have been scattered throughout space and time, you will never find them all! The Power Rangers just lost their power, and my associates will make sure they never get it back!" Venjix shouted then laughed evilly, even as he vanished into dust.

"Ai-yi-yi, this is terrible! What should I do? I, I, I have to send an alert to all of the living Rangers to look for those shards! They could be anywhere!" Alpha worried, moving to one of the terminals and quickly sending an alert to all the Rangers that had ever been connected to the Morphing Grid, whether or not they were operational.

"That's all I can do," Alpha worried, gnawing on non-existent fingernails, as he waited for responses to affirm that everyone had received the message.

X

Noah Carver, former Megaforce Blue, frowned as his phone received a text from his office in New York. "From Alpha-5?" he questioned, reading the text, which explained what had just happened. "Shards of a fusion core? Interesting problem. I'll keep an eye out," he frowned, typing a response.

X

Antonio, ex-Samurai Gold, raised his phone. "Hmm. That sounds like a problem, huh little buddy?" he questioned, unable to keep the smile off his face as he tickled his little Octozord under the chin from his tank with one hand, while he sent a response.

X

Mack Hartford, previously Overdrive Red, raised an eyebrow. "This looks interesting," he commented, immediately replying.

X

Tommy Oliver (oh come on, if you don't know who he is you have no right to call yourself a Power Rangers fan) smiled, interested. "Finally, an excuse to get back in the action," he couldn't help but grin.

"Something interesting?" Anton Mercer, a colleague of his and father of Trent Mercer, Thunder White, questioned. Tommy showed him the phone.

Anton's eyes lit up in shock. "Really? That - that could explain one of my most inexplicable findings! Follow me, we must go!" he instructed, rushing away.

Tommy blinked. "Hey, give me back my phone!" he shouted, rushing after the elderly scientist.

X

Alpha-5 breathed a sigh of relief as dozens of texts came in from Rangers and ex-Rangers worldwide, affirming that they would keep an eye out for Fusion Shards. "Now we can just wait and hope," he sighed.

X

Meanwhile, somewhere in London, a fire truck was accelerating through the streets with sirens blaring. "You sure you can drive this thing, Rookie?" one of the elder firemen in the back questioned.

Cooper Gerald, affectionately called Rookie by everyone he knew, was a 19-year-old high-school graduate who had graduated a year and a half earlier and immediately gone into the fire department. He had recently been cleared to drive a fire truck and been entrusted with his own, and this was his first time driving one towards an actual fire.

Cooper was lean, with thick black hair and a thin, smiley face with brown eyes. He was kitted out in traditional firefighter gear.

"My license says yes," Cooper retorted, twisting the wheel and sending the truck barrelling through a main street. "But does ya driving?" one of the other firemen questioned. "We haven't crashed yet," Cooper pointed out. "Yeah, Rookie, yet!"

Cooper slid the truck to a halt in front of the blazing building, and the other firemen raced out, grabbing the hose and extinguishers mounted on the sides of the vehicle.

Cooper watched, a little disappointed that he was missing the action, as the firemen rushed into the apartment block to rescue the trapped civilians. "Meanwhile I'm stuck on crowd control duty," he sighed, as a distressed woman rapped on his window. "Sir, sir!" she shouted, trying to attract his attention. "My baby's in there, you have to rescue my baby!" she added, rapping on the window. "A baby trapped in a burning building, how stereotypical. Why can't it be the panicking woman in there and not out here where she's getting on my nerves instead?" the boy muttered to himself.

Looking up, he spotted a couple of his colleagues waving at him from one of the upper floors. "They must need the ladder," Cooper decided, manipulating a series of buttons and levers to extend the automated ladder mounted atop the truck to the window.

The firemen gratefully clambered down the ladder, one of them carrying a squealing baby. The woman rushed away, and Cooper was grateful for the respite. "Another fire put out, by the book, no hitches whatsoever. This'll look good on my record," he sighed to himself, lying back and resting his feet on the dashboard as the last of the firemen rushed out and the fires finally stopped.

But it was right then that a loud boom sounded and the truck was unexpectedly thrown into the air. "Whoa-wha -" Cooper gasped as he felt the truck shift and change underneath him. The fireman frowned as his cockpit seemed to be hanging in the air several storeys up.

Shocked, he saw the cockpit shift and change around him, switched and parts vanishing and being replaced by new ones, the ground underneath his chair transforming itself into a different shape as the front windscreen expanded beyond what should have been possible.

Outside, Cooper's colleagues watched in shock as the fire truck unfolded, expanded and grew. The citizens watched in shock. "Holy cow, Cooper's inside that thing!" one of the firemen gasped.

The firetruck rippled and changed as it grew, crushing the formerly burning building as everyone scrambled for cover.

But eventually the transformation of the truck stopped.

After a couple of seconds, Cooper nervously opened an eye. "Huh. This actually looks pretty cool," he commented, casting his eye across the new dashboard.

Something clunked against his leg. "What's this?" Cooper questioned, picking up what seemed like a fire extinguisher, but with a few key differences. The nozzle was pointing straight upwards, and there was a trigger protruding from the side. Or bottom, Cooper presumed, picking the extinguisher up by the trigger in his hand and holding it like a sort of handgun. Looking at it from that angle, there was also a brown stripe running along the side with several buttons on it, each of which had a different symbol associated with it.

Cooper felt a jolt as the truck lurched underneath him, propelling itself forward. Frantically, he snatched at the controls, trying to stop it, but to no avail. The truck continued it's single-minded barrage through London, somehow not squashing anything but refusing to stop or even slow down.

Later, on the news, many of London's newscasters had decided to do a piece on the strange event. "When police arrived on the scene shortly afterwards, they got this statement from one of the firemen," one newscaster reported, before the take cut to film shot shorty after the incident of an interview with one of the firemen.

"So what exactly happened, Barry?" a reporter questioned one of the firemen, Barry.

"Well, we were all celebrating because we got everyone out of the fire safe, then some kinda small meteor hit the fire truck with Rookie inside it, then it just transformed into some kinda huge thingy and drove off with him inside it," Barry explained.

"Rookie? Who's that?" the reporter asked.

"Cooper Gerald, the youngest kid in our team, he was inside the fire truck when it happened. He's probably still in there, wherever it is," Barry worried.

X

But Cooper was fine, imprisoned within the cockpit of what had been a fire truck but otherwise unharmed. He had dozed off from boredom, and had no idea what was happening, cut off as he was. The truck was currently ploughing it's way across the Pacific Ocean, eager to reunite with the others of it's brethren.

X

Meanwhile, a Japanese teenager was sorting through her trading cards. Kishami Tora was a dedicated otaku and refused to hear different. The walls of her bedroom were littered with posters, her shelves were filled with action figures and collectibles, and she owned thousands of trading cards, all carefully sorted by media, brand, season and type.

She was of average build, with thin arms, long brown hair tied back in a ponytail, blue eyes and pale skin. She had a white-and-blue shirt on with a short pink overcoat and a leather brown skirt, with pink high heels.

"Okay, here they are," Kishami proclaimed, scooping up a deck of Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal trading cards. Then she turned around and scooped up another card that had been lying on the floor of her room. "Finally, my Railway collection is complete with the addition of this! Superdreadnaught Rail Cannon Gustav Max!" she smiled, holding out the card then laying it on top of the pile of matching Railway-type cards.

Kishami was about to lay the cards, complete with their new addition, back in their spot, but something stopped her. Instead, she retrieved her toy Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Disk from it's shelf and, slipping it to her wrist, switched it on. The two parts mechanically extended and swivelled around to form the complete five-part, ten-slot duelling device.

Grabbing her new card from the top of her pile of cards, she held it above the reader, about to put it onto the magnetised strip and not noticing that the image on the card was glowing.

"Kishami! When are you going to stop fooling around with all of that nonsense and grow up?" her father demanded, suddenly standing in the doorway.

Kishami snorted. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"

"Your father. And you're seventeen years old, you should have outgrown all this," her father waved an arm around at her room, "years ago,"

"We have been through this before, father," Kishami snorted, "I refuse to give up being an otaku!" she growled, slapping the card against her outstretched reader.

X - earlier, up in the atmosphere above Japan . . . . . . .

In a flash of light, a shard of the fusion core appeared in the sky. It hung there for a split second before gravity took hold and it fell down to earth with the force of a cannonball from where it was directly above a factory. A factory that produced Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

The shard smashed through the roof and landed on the conveyor belt, where it rolled due to the downwards slant and hit a single card on the production line, instantly absorbing itself into the card. A card named Superdreadnaught Rail Cannon Gustav Max.

No one noticed the difference about that one card as it was packaged with five other, perfectly normal cards and sent out to a newsagent in Akihabara, where it's pack was soon bought by one Kishami Tora.

X - back to the present . . . . . .

Kishami gasped as her duel disk lit up as jagged, circuit-like blue lines ran across the loader. Something shot out of it, rapidly growing, and smashed her bedroom wall to pieces as the huge Superdreadnaught Rail Cannon Gustav Max, grown to the size of a large Zord.

Mr. Tora had been knocked to the ground, covered with plaster dust. "What the hell did you do?" he growled at his daughter.

Kishami looked back at him, then at the huge mecha whose roof was less than a storey beneath the hole in the side of the apartment. "I wonder if that crushed anyone?" she absent-mindedly muttered to herself, before retorting to her father, "I have no idea, but I'm gonna keep doing it," she told him, grabbing a bag and rapidly stuffing a couple of sets of clothes into it, as well as her entire collection of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, before jumping down to the Rail Cannon's roof and climbing into it,

Her father weakly climbed to the hole in the wall and gazed down as the machine revved to life and, carried by grey tracks that appeared out of nowhere, flew away. "What the hell was that?"

X

Kishami smiled. "Hey, this thing is actually pretty easy to drive. Oh, and look, preloaded coordinates in the GPS. I wonder where this will take me,"

X

At the same time, the youngest of all, Huey Kordas, a fifteen-year-old nerd who had graduated high school early and was at college, was relaxing after a day of classes and studying with some of his favourite shows. He had a blue hoodie with orange pants and a red shirt, which complimented his smooth, short auburn brown hair and blue-green eyes.

"I love this show," he smiled, watching an episode of Digimon Fusion on his ipad.

"Hand over that hunk of junk and we'll let you go!" MetalMamemon instructed from the screen, pointing at Ballistamon. "Hey, I'm not just a hunk of junk, I can sing!" Ballistamon retorted, waving his mechanical arms in mid-air.

"Shut up, all of you, we have bigger problems," Mikey interrupted. Huey frowned, this wasn't how the episode was supposed to go. "Well, I guess it isn't really our problem, more like yours," Shoutmon added, pointing directly at the camera, towards Huey. "Yeah, Huey, I'm talking to you!" he finished.

Huey sweatdropped. "What is going on here?"

Suddenly, Ballistamon vanished into Mikey's red Fusion Loader. "Hey, catch!" the anime character shouted, throwing the fusion loader towards him. Somehow, the loader soared through the screen and into reality, losing it's cartoonish design and becoming solid red-and-silver metal. It landed in Huey's lap, and he stared at it, stunned. "What the hell is going on?" he asked. "Hey, I wanted that!" Garbagemon apprared out of nowhere and protested.

"Fusion shards, that's what. Objects of such great power, they can defy physics and make anything possible. Including this encounter. But Ballistamon has the fusion shard, so without him, this isn't going to last much longer," Dorulumon explained, bowing his head. "You're just making me more confused," Huey decided. "Well imagine how we feel, what the hell is going on?" Garbagemon questioned, waving a fist anime-style.

"You'll find out soon enough," Mikey told him. "Hey, come visit, kay Ballistamon?" Shoutmon shouted. "You got it! Bye!" a voice emitted from the fusion loader as the Ipad screen flashed white, then went black, before returning to how it had been before, and the episode continued playing,

"Was that some kind of weird hallucination?" Huey questioned, standing up. "Hey, careful! That hurt!" a voice came from underneath the desk. Huey winced, realising he had dropped the fusion loader to the ground when he stood up. "Sorry," he apologised, ducking down and fishing out the fusion loader. "So what's the deal with this whole fusion shard thing?" Huey questioned. "I'd honestly rather wait to tell you about that, that way I can explain it to all the others at the same time and I won't have to explain it repeatedly," the voice, which was presumably Ballistamon, explained. "Y'now, you're taking this pretty well," the digimon commented. "I'm pretty sure I'm just in shock," Huey brushed it off.

"So, these others?" he questioned. "I know where to go. You know how to get me out of here, right?" Ballistamon asked. Huey nodded, then realised he couldn't see him, and added, "Yup,"

"Good, just make sure we're in a wide outdoor space when you do. Oh, and pack a bag, I don't know how long we'll be gone for,"

"What? But what about college?" Huey questioned. "Trust me, this is way more important. You can reapply next semester or something if you miss too much. I think the fate of the world is more important than the age you graduate college at,"

"This is that important?" Huey asked, eyes widening. "You bet it is. Even one fusion shard in the wrong hands could be disasterous. And there are who knows how many, probably dozens,"

"And how many do we have?" Huey added, frowning. "I dunno how many the others have, we'll just have to go find them, but you and me? A grand total oooooooooof . . . . . . . . . " Ballistamon paused for dramatic effect. "One! Mine!" he finally announced.

Huey grimaced. "Well, let's go find the others," he finally decided, rushing off to pack.

X

On the dark side of the moon, something lurked. Something with a fusion shard at it's core. "So," an evil voice smiled. "The shards are finally revealing themselves. Well, I suppose it's time to let the treasure hunt begin. Oh yes, it's time to let the hunt," they smiled, and snapped their fingers. A sound of growling came from the shadows. "Begin,"

A/N

A/N

**So, thoughts, ideas, everyone? Whaddya think? I can tell you right now, there will be cameos from canon Rangers in the future, and I'm also considering making more crossovers. I can also say with little certainty that the Digimon world may be revisited. Also, if anyone has any ideas for things fusion shards could be in, feel free to tell me in a review or a PM! And I know I didn't desceibe the appearance of the truck, Rail Cannon or Ballistamon, I'm saving that for when they meet up. And don't worry, Kishami's daddy trouble will be further explained and maybe even resolved later in the story. Next chapter, the three meet, some things are explained, and a shady new character may or may not make a debut! Peace!**


	3. An Incomplete Collection

Ch. 2: An Incomplete Collection

Kishami's gentle lullaby that was the wheels of the Rail Cannon constantly and repeatedly clashing with their tracks slowly died away as the mech slid to a halt. Aroused by the absence, her eyelids slid open and she came to the realisation that wherever the train was taking her, she was there. "Huh. Where am I?" she wondered.

Looking around, despite the fact that Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max was a card from the ZEXAL era of Yu-Gi-Oh, the cockpit more resembled a Duel Runner from 5D's. She was perched on a black rubber saddle that wrapped around the central part of a motorbike-ish design set halfway into the floor. There was a locking mechanism that fit her Duel Disk set between a pair of handlebars, and a pair of suspicious-looking holes that seemed like a set of wheels would fit into them but said wheels were nowhere in sight. Kishami smiled knowingly, and hoped it actually would work as a motorbike.

Kishami hoisted her backpack to her shoulders and climbing out through the hatch in the cockpit's roof. On her way out she noticed another, similar hatch set into the floor behind her chair and resolved to find out what was beneath it later.

She slid down the slants of the mecha's body, landing evenly on the ground. Looking around, she discovered that she was in a seemingly uninhabited valley, and she had no idea where. It was the early morning, by the look of the sun nervously peeking between two large nearby hills.

But most importantly, she and her Rail Cannon - because she had somehow begun to think of it as 'her' Rail Cannon - were all alone on the valley.

Looking back up at the hulking menace that was her mecha, she awkwardly sweatdropped. "How do I get back in?"

The Rail Cannon was large and predominantly grey, with thin pink lines crisscrossing and spiderwebbing across the entire thing. It was essentially a platform mounted on two huge train carriages, and a huge hammer composed of hundreds of small crimson interlocking squares mounted on top of the platform. Kishami knew from watching the anime that that hammer could be used as it was, a hammer, or unfold into a large cannon, hence the name.

Failing to see an instant solution, she shrugged and, pulling her stacks of Yu-Gi-Oh cards from her backpack, began sorting through them, noticing that her Duel Disk was still on her wrist and the Superdreadnaught Rail Cannon Gustav Max card was still slotted into it's slot. As she flicked through her cards, she rapidly came across an anomaly. "Pink Rail Ranger? Huh. It's an Equip Spell Card that gives a monster FIVE THOUSAND Attack and Defence Points? But it's automatically removed from play after it's destroyed a monster level three or higher. But that makes no sense. Why would it give a monster enough power to destroy almost any other monster, but it only sticks around against level 1 and 2 monsters? It's like it's designed for something totally different to Yu-Gi-Oh duelling,"

A loud squeal alerted her to a new arrival.

A huge fire truck crashed to the ground, it's brakes squealing in agonised protest as it landed metres away from her, though what exactly it had fallen from was unclear. Either way, looking at its size, it had been barely inches away from crushing her like a Japanese pancake. "HEY!" she shouted in anger. "DID YOU GET YOUR LICENSE TO DRIVE OUT OF THE BACK OF A CEREAL PACKET OR SOME KIND OF CLOWN COLLEGE, YOU BIG OJAMA?! WHAT BUFFOON GAVE YOU YOUR LICENSE TO DRIVE - wait, do they even issue licences to drive giant fire trucks? Because I guess I'll need one if I'm keeping that thing," she interrupted herself, coyly scratching her head near the base of her ponytail as she turned and looked at the Rail Cannon.

X

Cooper was jolted awake as the truck suddenly crashed to a halt, brakes squealing in protest as it narrowly avoided a collision with the Rail Cannon. "What was that?" he gasped in shock.

Next thing he knew, the cockpit chair tipped backwards and deposited him on his back behind the seat. His relief at his release was short-lived, as the floor dropped down on an angle and, in surprise, put up no resistance as he slid through a newly revealed hole in the floor and into a compact, and slippery, tunnel leading through the mecha's guts.

X

Kishami jumped as a hole opened in the side of the huge fire truck. Cooper uneasily slid out, head-first, and landed in a puddle of mud. Kishami couldn't help but giggle. "That's what you get for almost flattening me," she chuckled. "For the record, I wasn't driving," Cooper snorted. "That's what they all say," Kishami groaned.

Something clunked against Cooper's foot. He bent down and picked up something that looked like a fire extinguisher, except there were several buttons on the side and the nozzle at the end of the cord was attached to some kind of gun. "What's this?" he asked, picking up both parts with one hand each. "And what happened to the one I had before?"

"Looks like some kind of anime weapon. Like what they have in Super Sentai," Kishami commented. "Super what-now?" Cooper questioned. "A series of teams of masked heroes that repeatedly save the world. I guess you call them Power Rangers in America," Kishami shrugged.

Cooper refused to even think about that. "Okay," was his only comment. "That thing yours?" he asked, pointing a thumb at the Rail Cannon and Kishami nodded in response, taking a better look at the Fire Truck Zord. It was predominantly crimson red, with two thin blue stripes running along it's side and the majority of the front was taken up by a black windscreen. A very large folded white ladder was mounted on the top snd a thick reel of grey hose hung from the side.

A loud thunk echoed from behind the Rail Cannon and both humans turned to take a look at the cause.

A huge, boxy robot had landed behind the Rail Cannon. It was coloured red with a grey plate on it's chest, as was it's chin, but the rest of it's body was blue, with short, stubby legs and an almost cartoonish quality to it's features. It's head was boxy and square, and had a large beetle horn sticking from it's forehead.

Huey walked into view from behind the Rail Cannon. "Oh cool, now there's three of us," Kishami giggled. "Who are you?" Huey and Cooper asked each other at the exact same time.

"Who am I? Who are you?"

"Why should I tell you? You tell me and then I'll tell you!"

"Quit talking in synchro-whatever, it's giving me a headache!" Kishami interrupted them bith, clutching her head. "Is that a Duel Disk?" Huey frowned, recognising the device strapped to her wrist.

The girl raised the device and smiled. "You recognise it? Awesome! Are you an otaku too?"

Huey paused. "Er, sorry, I never took Japanese,"

"Anime fan," the Japanese girl explained. Huey shrugged. "Name's Huey. I dabble," before raising a small, red-and-blue device. "Ballistamon! Download!" he commanded and his huge mecha vanished into a stream of light, which flew into the device.

Kishami watched as he did this. "Can I do that?" she wondered, looking at her Duel Disc. "Oh, and I'm Kishami,"

In a sudden moment of realisation, she removed the Rail Cannon card from her Duel Disk and, sure enough, the mecha vanished into nothingness.

"Well how do I get rid of that thing?" Cooper snorted, gesturing towards the Fire Truck. "And if you must know, I'm Cooper," he sighed.

Neither of the others had any answers for him. But a chirpy voice piped up from Huey's iPod-like Fusion Loader. "I'd say press the buttons on your morpher and see what they do!" Ballistamon advised.

"What! Who said that?" Cooper panicked, looking around. Kishami frowned. "How come yours talks?" she pouted.

"That - thing - is not important," Cooper reasserted himself. "I feel so wounded!" Ballistamon melodramatically declared. "Shut up," the fireman commanded.

"Er, guys?" Huey tried to interrupt, but was ignored.

"Dude, you're talking to an MP3 player," Kishami pointed out. "And it's talking back, so it's okay. Now, why are we here, anyway?" Cooper looked at everyone else expectantly. "Search me, but it can't be worse than Japan," Kishami shrugged.

"That thing said morphers," Cooper puzzled. "That's a Power Rangers thing,"

"Guys?" Huey tried again.

Kishami produced the Pink Rail Ranger card. "What about this?" she asked, showing it to Cooper. "Looks like a Power Ranger alright. I think that means all three of us are supposed to be Power Rangers now," Cooper surmised. "But why do we have different morphers? Rangers of the same teams usually have the same morpher," he added.

"I can answer that," Ballistamon interrupted. "All three of you have different fusion shards. What the fusion shard bonded with accounts for the differences," he explained from within the Fusion Loader as a shadow fell across the trio.

"Guys!" Huey freaked.

"What?" Cooper finally responded. In response, Huey pointed up and they saw a huge spaceship hovering above them.

"What the hell is that thing?" Kishami gasped. "That's an Imperial Star Destroyer. Like from Star Wars," Huey explained. "Don't they have Star Wars where you come from?" Cooper snorted, still looking up at the Destroyer.

A platform, suspended from a slowly lowering steel cord, swung down from the Imperial Star Destroyer. A solitary fogure stood upon it. As the platform dropped closer to the ground, the figure was revealed to be wearing a large purple cloak with gold and black highlights that swept to his feet, and had a big collar that obscured his head. A large black top hat and white surgical gloves, one of which was grasping a black cane with white tips that vaguely resembled a magician's wand, completed the entourage that made sure nothing was revealed about the figure as long as his face was turned away.

The platform landed in front of the three and the figure twirled his cane. "Well well, lookie what we have here. Three more precious pieces of my collection, ripe for the plucking. Now, children, be dears and hand them over, and things won't have to get messy,"

The figure's face, now that it was revealed, was thin and gaunt, crisscrossed with wrinkles and other lines. His nose was large and pointed like a crow's beak, and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of old-fashioned spectacles.

"Who are you?" Kishami defiantly challenged. "Oh, I am so sorry, my dear, I seem to have forgotten to give myself the proper introduction. You may call me The Collector, and I'm doing my best to amass quite the collection. Of fusion shards," The Collector smiled cruelly.

"What are fusion shards, anyway?" Cooper frowned.

"Why, they are everything. They are the ultimate power. You see, based on that great monstrosity there, I'm guessing you've already seen what a fusion shard can do to something it bonds with. And fusion shards can bond with anything. Tell me, what was that before it became . . . . . . that? A fire engine, I presume. And look at it now, an incredible weapon capable of destroying an entire city in mere hours. A fusion shard could do that, give that sort of power, to ANYTHING. From something as insignificant as a bug," The Collector produced a squirming cockroach from nowhere, before flicking it away without a thought, "to you or me,"

The three children were left speechless at this. The fusion shards were that powerful?

"I don't know why you have some, but don't meddle in matters that don't concern you. So you just hand them over and not only will I leave you alone, I'll give you all lifts back home. Whaddya say?" The Collector smiled, raising his arms.

Kishami snorted and turned away. After a second, Huey followed suit. They both fully expected Cooper to join them, but, when Kishami looked back after a moment, he actually seemed to be considering the proposal. "Are you seriously actually listening to his blather? Hellooo? He's the bad guy!"

"Well if he knows so much about the fusion whatevers, why shouldn't he have them? Why is it my problem? Besides, if there's some evil or something, what about the Dino Charge Rangers? They're still in operation, why can't they take care of things?"

"Because the fusion shards are a critical part of the Morphing Grid! Without them, the Morphing Grid won't function and no Rangers without fusion shards will be able ti function!" Ballistamon rushed. "What?" all three teenagers gasped.

"Why didn't you say that before?" Cooper raged, turning towards Huey and directing an angry glare at the Fusion Loader.

"It didn't seem important,"

"Ah," the Collector interrupted. "And what makes you so sure that I won't protect the Earth in their stead?"

"Becasue you look - and act - just like anime villains!" Kishami vehemently complained.

The Collector blinked in surprise. "So you're basing your dislike of me on bad Japanese cartoon shows,"

"No, I'm basing my dislike for you off GOOD Japanese TV shows," Kishami corrected him. "And now I really don't like you, so you can kiss this," she waggled the Rail Cannon card at him, "Goodbye,"

"And I'm not giving something supposedly so powerful to a complete stranger. Especially someone dressed like that," Huey backed the Japanese otaku up.

Cooper looked at the extinguisher weapon in his hand, then back at the truck. "I did always want to help people," he shrugged. "And I don't think giving this to you will help with that. So until you can prove me wrong, I'm keeping this," he frowned.

The Collector pursed his lips in annoyance. "So it seems I have some competition. No matter, I will complete my collection. One way, or another," he warned the trio.

However, the debate was interrupted by the sound of explosions on the Imperial Star Destroyer above them. "What is that?" The Collector growled, propelling upwards and back into the Destroyer faster than the others would have believed possible, just as another, familiar-looking ship came into view, a ship that anyone with internet would have seen after the rise of the Dino Charge Rangers.

Sledge's ship.

Up on the Destroyer's bridge, thr Collector growled into the intercom, "Who are you and what gives you the right to interrupt my work?"

"I am Sledge. And I do not know where you got that monstrosity, but it reeks of Power Rangers," Sledge growled. "And I will destroy everything that is related to the Rangers," he snorted,

"I'm so terribly sorry, but unless you are in the possession of a fusion shard, you are nothing more than a distraction to me. And I do not like distractions," The Collector contemptuously snorted. "I am FAR more than a distraction!" Sledge raged, throwing his ship towards the Destroyer.

The Collector smiled and activated the tractor beam. "Amateurs," he snorted in contempt as Sledge's ship was picked up and stripped of it's ability to move independently. "Fore!" he called triumphantly and with a couple of nimble flicks of the controls, used the tractor beam to cstapult the ship into orbit. "Not again," the Collector heard a voice groan. "Shut up, Wrench!" Sledge commanded just before the ship entered orbit and flew out of range of the communicator.

"Wow. That's the guy the Dino Charge Rangers have been fighting for months. And that Collector dude threw him into space like he was nothing!" Huey gasped.

His Fusion Loader crackled to life, as did Kishami's Duel Disk. Cooper searched his body, and his fire extinguisher/gun, but nothing made a sound. The Collector's voice echoed from the Disk and the Loader in synchronisation. "So you see the extent of my powers? Good. I think I'll just leave you with a parting gift. I think I can spare it for a while, and it'll be interesting to see what you do with an unbonded fusion shard," Suddenly a small parcel with a parachute fell down from the Destroyer and slowly drifted down towards them.

"Wait, you're just giving us a fusion shard? One that hasn't bonded with anything? Seriously? Why?" Huey asked in disbelief. "Because it would be unfair that you start out in the collection game with such a handicap. And even if it wasn't, I grow uninspired in my old age. I want to see what you can make that fusion shard become. I'm wrapped it up in a special material to prevent it from bonding with anything, but it'll probably bond with the first other thing it touches. I'll leave you with this note of warning," The Collector proclaimed as the package touched down on the ground. Kishami rushed over and picked it up in awe. "Handle with care," The Collector finished, and in an instant, the Destroyer was gone as if it had never existed.

"Maybe this Collector guy isn't so bad after all?" Huey optimistically questioned. "More like this shard, assuming it's not fake, is booby-trapped," Cooper snorted. "Y'now, you really have an attitude problem," Kishami snorted, cradling the shard to her chest. "Careful with that thing," Ballistamon cautioned.

"So, now what?" Cooper wondered. "Don't you worry!" Ballistamon shouted from the Fusion Loader. "A friend of mine'll be arriving soon enough, he'll take us home,"

"Huh?" All three questioned, but Ballistamon refused to respond.

Moments later, the loud rev of a motorbike alerted them all to a new arrival. "Who's that?" Kishami questioned as a black-and-gold motorbike leapt up over a hill, before crashing down to earth and making the last few metres to stop less than a metre from Huey. The sixteen-year old college graduate wiped his glasses off as the bike splattered him with mud.

The rider pulled off his helmet with a smile. "So I see, these are the new Power Rangers? We did it differently in my day, but every team is different, I suppose,"

"Who are you?" Kishami frowned. "How could you not know who I am?" the rider questioned.

"She's from Japan," Huey explained. "As am I," the rider smiled. "Good to see a fellow citizen of the great culture," he added.

"Er, who are you?" Cooper frowned.

"Who am I?" The Japanese man laughed and spread his arms. "I am the mentor of the Samurais! The teacher of the shoguns! But you can just call me Ji," he smiled.

Cooper paused. "So you were a friend of the Samurai Rangers?"

Ji sighed. "Yes, let's go with that. Now all of you, follow me! We must return to the Shiba household and find a new base of operations for you Fusion Rangers!"

"Or we could just use the Shiba household as a base? I mean, the Samurai Rangers aren't using it anymore," Cooper snorted. A vein pulsed in Ji's neck, and he protested, "You three are taking all of the fun out of being a mentor again!"

A/N

**A/N**

**I know I said I wouldn't involve any more canon villains, but this is set as a sort of intermission to Dino Charge, and with the Morphing Grid offline, I needed some reason that Sledge and all them wouldn't interfere, and what better reason than the Collector getting angry and showing off his power?**

**And there is another thing that I think everyone will be shocked by. The Collector is NOT the main villain!**

**And if anyone's wondering about the 'Pink Rail Ranger' Yu-Gi-Oh card, with it being removed from play after it's destroyed a monster level three or higher, I envisioned it as level-1 being regular grunts, level-2 beong the eventually-appearing stronger grunts,**

**In other news, Mentor Ji becomes the first canon Ranger/mentor to show up. And unlike most canon characters, he'll be sticking around. As a matter of fact, he and Alpha-5 are the only canon characters I plan on giving recurring involvement. At present. XD Peace!**


	4. The Shiba House

Ch. 3: The Shiba House

"So, can you do Symbol Power?" Cooper asked, interested.

Ji smiled. "First, one question. Can any of you ride a motorbike?"

To the surprise of all, Huey raised his hand. "My brother taught me how," he confessed.

"Good, good," And with that, Ji pulled out a paintbrush and began painting a symbol in mid-air. The strokes showed up as golden-brown paint against an invisible canvas suspended in mid-air. "That is the kanji for 'motorbike'," Ji explained, before flipping the symbol around with a flick of his brush and shoving it forwards, where it became a motorbike identical to the first. Kishami's eyes boggled. "Can you teach me to do that?" she asked excitedly.

The sensei sadly smiled. "Sorry, but it's a very rare gift. I can give you some pointers, but it's a very rare talent,"

Huey jumped on the newly created motorbike. "Would the lovely lady like to ride with me?" he asked, the epitome of politeness. But Kishami was already sitting on the back of Ji's bike. "Guess you're stuck with me, lover-boy," Cooper chuckled. Huey just sighed.

"What do we do about that?" Kishami asked, pointing at the Fire Truck Zord. Ji shrugged. "It will come when you need it. It should be fine here until then, though,"

"Really reassuring, dude," Cooper clapped a hand to Ji's shoulder. "Really reassuring,"

X

Ji pulled his motorbike to a halt outside the Shiba House' front gates. Huey followed suit shortly afterwards.

Cooper had spent the entire trip puzzling out everything he knew about the Samurai Rangers. "So, the Nighlocks, right? That's the enemy the Samurais fought, right? Do we have anything to worry about from them?" he asked Ji.

The sensei keyed in a code and the gate swung open. "We shouldn't. Octoroo is still down in the Sanzu River, and he's probably plotting something, but it'll take hundreds of years for him to get out again. We should have nothing to worry about from them," Ji explained, and Cooper breathed a sigh of relief.

The four trooped in through the door. "So this is where the Samurai Rangers lived? Like, for their entire tenure?!" Huey asked in excitement.

"Oh, you bet," a new voice interrupted, and an Asian-looking boy in a checkered jacket with a gold undershirt and mud-coloured trousers emerged from a corridor that led into the Shiba Household's lobby.

"Who are you?" Kishami wondered. "Name's Antonio," the boy introduced himself. "But you kids might know me better as the Gold Samurai Ranger," Antonio produced the Octozord disc from nowhere and smirked cockily.

Huey freaked. "AWESOME!"

"Antonio?" Ji frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"My flight got cancelled. And this place was nearby so I figured you wouldn't mind me crashing here for a couple of days until the next one leaves," Antonio shrugged.

"Your flight?"

"I've been going to cooking school, and I'm surprisingly good. So I'm taking my skills to Paris, France!" Antonio cheered, putting on a paper chef's hat with a flag on it.

"Er, that's the Italian national flag," Cooper pointed out. "Wait, what?" Antonio blinked, hastily removing the hat. "Who are you three anyway?"

"They, Antonio, are the newest team of Power Rangers!" Mentor Ji announced.

Antonio looked at the trio in a new light. "So you three are the new Power Rangers? Are you missing a couple of members or are you gonna just be a trio to start off with like Ninja Storm?"

"Just the three of us for now," Cooper shrugged. "Well, if you need a couple of tips from a veteran, gimme a call," Antonio winked.

"Children! Follow me!" Ji instructed.

"I am nineteen years old, I am legally an adult!" Cooper protested, but followed anyway, as did the other two and Ji led them into the Shiba House's practice yard.

"I take it you have not yet tried to morph?" Ji questioned, and all three shook their heads. "Well this is where you practise and train, so give it a shot," he instructed.

Kishami, who was still wearing her Duel Disk, shrugged and pulled the Pink Rail Ranger card from her pocket, and slid it into one of her Disk's Spell/Trap Card Zones. "Er, let's Duel!" she shouted.

Pink electric lines that resembled circuitry flashed into existence all over the Duel Disk, and rapidly spread all across her body. Kishami gasped as a stream of grey railway tracks shot out of nowhere and wrapped around her body, transforming her clothes into skin-hugging pink fabric. Once it had finished wrapping around her body, the tracks shot into her Duel Disc and the five Monster Card Zones on it glowed.

"Awesome!" Kishami geeked out, looking at herself.

The suit was pink with white boots and gloves that reached up to her elbows and knees. Her chest was in white too, and a logo of an infinity symbol in all the colours of the rainbow was emblazoned on her chest. Her helmet was in the shape of an upside-down triangle with silver railway tracks wrapped around it. "I look like a ToQger!" was her first comment.

"A what?" Ji blinked. "Just ignore her references, we've learned to already," Cooper advised.

"Now you!" Ji instructed Huey, pushing him forwards. Huey stumbled into the yard and raised the Fusion Loader. "Spin the dial!" Ballistamon advised him. Huey uncertainly shrugged and, stepping forwards, seized the Fusion Loader's silver dial and twisted it clockwise.

A ladder-like loading bar comprised of stacked white rectangles came from the bottom of the Fusion Loader's screen and rapidly rose up, but when it reached the top of the screen the pixellated symbols simply left the screen and continued appearing through the air, growing larger and larger, then bending over, going behind Huey and burrowing into the ground. They emerged again in front of him and rose above his legs and chest until the bars hit the earlier ones that had first appeared from the Fusion Loader.

At the exact same moment, all of the bars turned blue and squeezed themselves around Huey, wrapping him up. Then, in a flash of light they were gone and Huey had morphed.

His suit was the same as Kishami's from the neck down, with the same white elbow-length gloves and knee-length boots. The only difference there was that where she had pink, he had blue.

But his helmet was vastly different. Unlike Kishami's, a blue beetle horn protruded from his forehead that matched Ballistamon's, and his visor was rectangular. Also missing was the grey railway tracks that ran around her helmet, instead a horizontal version of the loading bars that he had used to morph wrapped around the sides and back of his head, and they passed underneath his visor, not on top.

Huey surveyed himself. "I like it," he commented, smiling behind his rectangular visor."Now you," Ji warmly smiled at Cooper. "Listen, man, I'm still not sure about this whole thing -" he started, but an explosion just outside the house silenced him.

Huey and Kishami demorphed and rushed outside, quickly followed by Cooper and Mentor Ji. Antonio met them in the lobby, and it didn't escape anyone's notice that he was holding his Samurai Morpher at the ready as they rushed down the driveway and out the front gates.

They were greeted by a translucent floating stripper with gray skin and spiky black hair in the middle of the road. His eyes were solid grey, and shone with what was almost black light.

"Ah, hello. Good to see you all," the spectre greeted them. "Wow. You look a lot like Number 96," was Kishami's first response.

"I think a more prudent question would be why isn't he wearing pants," Antonio sweatdropped.

The spectre paused, frowning. "Who?"

"Oh, he was this side-villain from Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal who tried to possess Yuma and after that failed he worked with the Barians and Don Thousand to -" But the spectre held up a hand, interrupting her. "Interesting. I was going to introduce myself, but going under an assumed name adds so much mystery, don't you think? So yes, call me Number 96 for now," the ghostly character smiled.

"I take it you're a bad guy too?" Cooper sighed. "You want the fusion shards, right?"

The spectre, Number 96, snarled. "No," he spat. "I want to destroy them," he growled.

Huey blinked. "Why?"

But the spectre only cackled in response. "Ah, have you never heard the saying, "Ours is not to reason why, but simply to do and hope that others will follow? Well yours is not to reason why, and mine is to do,"

"Why are you a ghost?" Antonio bluntly asked. Number 96 paused in disbelief. "What about 'Yours is not to reason why' do you not understand?" he protested."Actually, it's a good question. You're all floaty and translucent and stuff, and that's hardly normal," Huey pointed out.

Number 96 buried his head in his hands. "Why do I bother?" he complained. "I guess you're wondering why I'm here, anyway. Well I'll tell you. This," he swept his hands away from his face to reveal an evil grin.

A huge crash shook the ground, and the Rangers looked up in shock. A Megazord stood tall above them, but not one like any they had ever seen before.

It's feet were black, and it had yellow claws. It's legs were somewhere between solver and metallic blue, and resembled jet turbines, attached to a pelvis and lower body that was crimson red, with a semi-retracted dragon head protruding from the pelvis. The upper body was navy blue, with yellow horns sticking out of it's shoulders. It had crimson robotic wings, and yellow arms with tank treads set into them that were adorned with scorpion-like claws. It's head looked like that of the Battlewing Megazord, shaped like a tiger head with a human face in the jaws, but it was solid black with cruel, gleaming orange eyes.

As usual, Kishami was ready to spout off some piece of anime trivia. But this time it was useful. "That's the VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon!" she gasped.

"You recognise that thing?" Cooper asked in shock. "Yeah. VWXYZ was a Fusion-based card archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh GX. The point of it was to use the V-Tiger Jet, W-Wing Catapult, X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, and Z-Metal Tank to combine into the VW Tiger Catapult and XYZ Dragon Cannon, which then combined further into the VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon. Which is that!" she exclaimed.

"Fascinating. Thank you, dear, you've been most helpful," Number 96 chuckled. Kishami gulped as she realised he hadn't known that either. "Whoops,"

"Wait, that thing is a combination of five other things? So that means there must be FIVE fusion shards in that robot!" Cooper exclaimed.

"Now, if it wouldn't be a terrible bother, my, ahem, VWXYZ Megazord is going to destroy the Shiba House. Unless, of course, you can stop it," Number 96 laughed as though he had just told some hilarious joke.

"Oh no it won't," Huey snorted, snatching his Fusion Loader up. "Ballistic Zord, upload!" he commanded, and Ballistamon, in full Ballistic Zord form, appeared in front of the VWXYZ Megazord.

Ballistamon nervously realised he barely came up to chest height with the VWXYZ. "Oh man," he gulped, looking up at the oppressor.

"I'm-a coming to help!" Kishami exclaimed, slapping the Rail Cannon Zord card onto her Duel Disc and the train Zord returned to existence.

Both Cooper and Kishami suddenly found themselves back in the cockpits of their respective Zords, and suddenly morphed to boot. "Alright," Kishami smirked, clutching the handlebars of her motorbike-like cockpit.

Cooper produced the extinguisher gun. "Any idea how to summon my Zord with this thing?" he asked. "It's usually the button that looks like a vehicle," Antonio advised.

The fireman shrugged and pressed a yellow button with a symbol that looked like a badly drawn fire truck on it. All of nothing happened. "Where's my Zord?" he asked in consternation. "It is a while away, it could take a little while to get here," Ji shrugged.

Kishami flicked the controls and the huge hammer atop the mecha started unfolding and transforming into a huge cannon. "I now use one Overlay Unit to activate Rail Cannon's ability. Dealing 2000 points of damage direct to you," she quoted with a chuckle, remembering the anime appearances of Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max. The cannon fired, and VWXYZ stumbled back in shock.

Cooper tapped his foot in irritation. "Come o-on," he groaned,

But the VWXYZ was giving the Ballistic Zord a real beat-down. "Come on, Ballistamon, fight back!" Huey commanded, yanking at the controls. "I'm a lover, not a fighter!" Ballistamon protested, ineffectually slapping the larger robot.

"That's it, I'm going to help them," Antonio groaned, pulling out the ClawZord disc and his Samurai Morpher. "Go Go Samurai!" he commanded, typing and sending a text on his phone.

Nothing happened.

Antonio blinked in surprise. "Summon Clawzord!" he tried, typing something else. "Your Symbol Power is not working? Mine is fine," Ji frowned.

Number 96 wafted over to them, smiling evilly. "Didn't you know? The fusion shards were created through the destruction of a critical part of the Morphing Grid. Which means if you don't have a fusion shard, you can't use your Ranger powers. And that means your little discs are worse than useless and your precious morpher is just a cell phone. And a very bad-quality one at that too," the ghoul chuckled.

Antonio, in a fit of frustration, threw the useless Samurai Morpher at Number 96. It harmlessly passed through him and clattered to the ground. Ji quickly went and retrieved it, while Antonio threw a punch at the ghoul. His fist didn't even make contact, cutting through the ghost without even leaving a mark. "Ooh, touchy," Number 96 snorted.

"Here it is!" Cooper triumphantly shouted, as his red Fire Truck Zord finally arrived on the scene. Antonio's eyes widened. "Cooper!" he exclaimed. "If I know anything about Zords, those three should be able to fuse into a Megazord that can beat that monstrosity! And you're the Red Ranger, the fusion protocols will be in your Zord!" he instructed.

"Got it," Cooper nodded, somehow instinctively knowing which button to press to teleport him to the cockpit, and doing so. The boy looked over the controls in a sudden new light, as though he suddenly somehow knew exactly what every button would do.

And one button caught his eye.

"Oh look, this thing has an alternate mode," he smiled. "A what?" Huey blinked.

The Fire Truck Zord split in half down the middle, with only the front part, the cockpit, staying together, and extended into a horizontal shape. Next the two now-extended parts split again, horizontally this time, into an X shape. The lower two bars continued on their way down while the upper two bars rotated and folded back down again, becoming arms, as the lower parts with the wheels on them became legs.

Cooper smiled as the Fire Truck Zord finished transitioning into humanoid format - then realised something.

The Fire Truck's human form barely came up to the VWXYZ's pelvis.

In desperation the fireman extended the Zord's fire hose and sprayed the VWXYZ with fire retardant foam. Which was utterly ineffective.

"Seriously?" Kishami snorted. "It's my first time!" Cooper protested.

"Didn't Antonio say something about combining the Zords?" Ballistamon ventured. "He's right! Cooper?" Huey requested.

"I think that's this button," Cooper guessed.

"I know how to do it!" Ballistamon ventured. "Great, then do it already!" Kishami shouted.

Cords of electricity bound the three mechas together, and pulled them closer to each other. "Initiating combination sequence," Ballistamon reported.

The Ballistic Zord head detached and was reattached to his chest, leaving a large gap, and his arms and feel folded up and revealed combination ports. The Rail Cannon split into three parts, the hammer/cannon and the two carriages it was mounted on. Feet folded out of the carriages and they attached to Ballistamon's knees, forming the legs of the Megazord. The Fire Truck Zord, still in humanoid formation, had it's arms removed and it's legs folded back together, which came up above the hub. The arms clipped together and attached to the Ballistic Zord's left arm, and the Rail Cannon's hammer attached to Ballistamon's right arm. The rest of the Fire Truck Zord attached to the slot where the Ballistic Zord's head was, and a head popped out of the top of the cockpit. The hammer opened up into the cannon and the Megazord held it as though it were a foil of some kind.

Cooper's chair retracted into the ground and came down into the body of the Megazord. Huey's control board retreated into the chest of the Ballistic Zord, and the wall in front of Kishami's motorbike console opened up and it was carried on a motorised rail up the leg, through the pelvis snd into a large room in the centre of the mecha.

Kishami and her console appeared behind Huey and his dashboard. Cooper hung from the ceiling above them, with a small fraction of his cockpit's controls suspended in front of him.

"You haven't morphed?" Kishami blinked in surprise behind her pink visor. "Is that important?" Cooper protested.

Huey saw some words scroll across his dashboard's screen. "Fusion Megazord MAKE1, Combined and Dangerous!" he shouted.

"Shouldn't we all say that together?" Cooper protested. "You snooze, you lose," Huey shrugged.

"How do I drive this thing?" Kishami protested.

"It's simple, use the joystick," Cooper pointed out. "I'm on a motorbike, genius," Kishami snorted, revving the handlebars to give emphasis to her point.

The Fusion Megazord charged forwards in response to her action.

"Whoa!" Cooper gasped, twisting the steering wheel. The Megazord's right arm grasped it's rapier and delivered a stunning blow to the VWXYZ.

"Awesome," Cooper breathed.

"I wonder what happens if I do this?" Huey questioned, pushing a couple of buttons.

The rapier slotted back into the arm, returning to cannon mode, and fired.

X

Down on the ground, Number 96 was frantically mashing at a remote control. "Come on, fight back, you big lug," he growled. Antonio chuckled. "Not so happy with your big robot now, huh?"

Number 96 glared at the former Gold Ranger. "I hate it when the good guys win," the spectre growled under his breath.

X

"I think I found the finisher button," Cooper reported, holding his thumb above a red button marked 'Finisher'.

"Hold up. I'm still working out how to use the left arm," Huey retorted. "Do all Ranger team mecha come with such a learning curve?" Kishami sighed. "I reckon it's because you're all terrible at working as a team!" Ballistamon disturbingly enthusiastically responded.

"Hey, you're right. Other teams never had to work out how to drive Zords, it just came naturally," Cooper realised. "Naturally, you can come whenever you want!" Kishami exclaimed in frustration. "Did I screw up English grammar again? Whoopsie," she awkwardly added, registering Huey's frown.

"Let's just use the finisher," Cooper sighed, hitting the button. "Hey! I wasn't done!" Huey complained as the controls became unresponsive.

The Fusion Megazord grasped it's rapier pole like a staff and began spinning it as though it were a kendo staff or a poleaxe of some kind. The weapon began crackling with blue-tinted orange energy and span faster and faster, until it became a solid circle of orange light.

And when it was incredibly charged up, the Fusion Megazord grasped it with both hands, swung it back behind it's head as it leaped forwards and delivered a stunning blow to the top of the VWXYZ Megazord. "Electron Jolt Staff!" Kishami shouted. "What? Big attacks always have pointless names," she added, registering the confused flances of her teammates.

"That's it, time for a tactical retreat!" Number 96 panicked. The damaged VWXYZ Megazord vanished from existence, and Number 96 swept towards the wall of the Shiba House, passing theough it effortlessly. Ji rushed after him, refusing to let the ghoul out of his sight, but Number 96 didn't emerge from the other side of the wall. "He escaped!" Ji exclaimed.

From inside the wall, the ghoul facepalmed, 'Or I'm just still inside the wall, you idiot,' before sinking into the ground and escaping beneath the road's tarmac.

The Fusion Megazord separated back into it's three components, and Huey and Kishami returned their Zords to their respective morphers. Cooper just stared at his Fire Truck, wondering what to do with it, before it, seemingly of it's own volition, began to drive itself away to parts unknown. "Next time, don't come from so far away!" Cooper commanded.

X

"Well, I think that went pretty well," Kishami grinned. The three Rangers, Antonio, and Mentor Ji were sitting at the dining table. The parcel containing the fusion shard sat in the centre of the table. "What do we do with that?" Huey frowned, pointing at the shard. "I will put it in the vault. It will be safe there," Ji decided. "Be careful with it!" Kishami instructed.

Ji, startled by the exclamation, tripped and dropped the fusion shard to the floor. "No!" the Rangers exclaimed as it fell to the floor - and nothing happened.

"Ji, you idiot!" Cooper raged, running towards him. Ji's eyes widened like a rabbit who had caught sight of a predator - and also like a rabbit who had caught sight of a predator, he bolted, dashing down the corridor and away from Cooper's fury.

Kishami gently picked the shard up and put it back on the table. She sighed. "Boys,"

A/N

**A/N**

**And with that, the 10,000 word introductionto the story is complete!**

**The whole scene with Antonio taking his cooking skills to Paris unknowingly under the Italian Flag is a homage to the finale of Shinkenger, the Super Sentai version of Samurai, where Genta (Super Sentai equivalent of Antonio) did the same thing. I loved that scene!**

**And Antonio will be here for the next couple of chapters until his flight leaves, but that's it. He was my favourite character in Samurai, so I wanted to give him a bit of involvement.**

**Anyway, yes, Number 96 will be the (current) major recurring villain. But he'a taking a break for a couple of chapters, because next time we find out exactly why the Collector gave them that Fusion Shard, Kishami and Huey go back to high school, and the team gets their first auxilliary Zord! Peace!**


	5. The Ice Tooth Zord

Ch. 4: The ice Claw Zord

"What do you mean, I have to go to high school?" Kishami complained. "If you and Huey are going to live here, it would look suspicious if you didn't go to high school," Ji explained. "Besides, Huey doesn't complain," he added.

"Yeah, but he's a nerd," Kishami protested.

"And you aren't?" Cooper snorted from where he was reclining in an armchair with a magazine.

"Well, what if a Ranger emergency or something comes up during school?" Kishami protested.

"Like what?" Cooper interrupted again. Kishami fumed. "Seriously, I'm askng. What are we even doing as Rangers? I know the fusion shards pose an incredible threat, but it's not like some monster's going to attack the city randomly. Number 96 didn't seem to have any minions yet, and the Collector looked like the type to work alone. And those shards could be anywhere in the world, or even on different planets. It could be months until the next one shows up. So in the meantime, what are we doing?"

"You two and Huey are also the Earth's only line of defence against all kinds of threats with the Morphing Grid offline," Ji added. "So if aliens invade again, or mutants or robots or something appear out of nowhere and try to wipe out humanity again, or evil dinosaur monsters show up again -"

"Seriously? All that? Wow, America's a lot more fun than Japan," Kishami interrupted. "We only get aliens, demons and sentient computer viruses. Well, recently, anyway,"

"We're the only ones in the world who can stop them," Cooper finished.

Ji nodded. "Yay! It's like we're in some kind of anime or something!" Kishami cheered. "Whatever floats your boat," Cooper shrugged.

Ji paused, "Hey. Where is Huey, anyway?"

X

"For a samurai dojo, this place is surprisingly high-tech," Huey commented. "Tell me if you need any help!" Ballistamon advised. "Helpful," the Blue Ranger sighed. "Brilliant! Thank you, Huey!" Huey facepalmed.

"Fascinating. This, ahem, fusion shard, it's producing incredible frequencies, and both emitting and receiving frequencies simultaneously. It's almost like it's . . . . . . . . networking with other shards. This is incredible! If we can somehow access this network, we might be able to track down all of the other fusion shards in a matter of days!" Huey exclaimed.

"Could we also use it to make hot tea? I love hot tea!" Ballistamon exclaimed.

Huey pulled the Fusion Loader from his pocket and muted it.

X

Kishami groaned. Ji had enrolled her in the local high school, Panorama High, and it was her first day. At least the school didn't have a uniform policy.

"Hello, everyone! Today we have a new student, Kishami Tora!" Mrs Manx, the form teacher, announced, waving her arms in excitement. "Please, it's really not that big a deal," Kishami awkwardly responded, feeling pressured under the gazes of the rest of her new class.

The cover story Ji, Kishami and Huey had agreed on was that Kishami and Huey were sinlings and were staying with Ji, who was a distant relative, while their family worked out internal issues.

"Miss Tora, I believe there is a seat by the window with your name on it, right next to Julie Parkur," Mrs. Manx announced, gesturing to a smiling girl sotting near the back. Kishami paused in shock at the sight of the girl.

She looked British, with thin lips and ice-blue eyes, skin that was somehow dark yet pale at the same time, and was wearing a thin shirt that might have been white with a yellow stripe running across it at one time, but all the colour seemed to have been bleached out of it so it just looked grey. Kishami craned her neck but couldn't see what the girl was wearing beneath the waistline, obscured by the desk she was sitting at. Her hair was shocking. It was thin and spiky, and shot out in all directions like an explosion, and the colour of freshly-laid, gleaming white snow.

But the most surprising thing was that there was a live, seemingly perfectly tame fox with fur the exact same colour as her hair.

"Er, nice fox?" Kishami awkwardly commented as she put her books down on the desk next to Julie. "Thanks," Julie smiled, and Kishami could have sworn she saw a tinge of sadness creep into her eyes. The white fox moved over to the otaku, then, without warning, jumped up and licked her cheek. Julie chuckled and petted it between the ears. "Aww, she likes you. That's Jinx," she explained. "Er, isn't it against the rules to have an animal in school?" Kishami frowned.

There it was again, that glint of sadness in her icy eyes. "We're, er, unique, I guess," Julie shrugged, and the look was gone, replaced with a bouncy happiness. "It's a sort of special needs thing, neither of us will go anywhere without the other. So eventually they had to let her come with me hereqa. People say it's unhealthy, but I don't care," Julie smiled, and Jinx jumped into her lap.

"Cute," Kishami shrugged. "Er, no offence, but what's up with, er, you know?" she asked, gesturing to Julie's snow-white hair. "Oh, it's a genetic condition. The common term for it is albino," Julie shrugged it off.

"Would the two ladies at the back please quiet down and pay attention. We are in class," Mrs. Manx snorted. Obligingly, both Julie and Kishami shut up, and even Jinx curled up in Julie's lap and kept quiet.

X

"Well, that was a long day," Kishami sighed. "Tell me about it," Julie groaned in response. Jinx trotted at her feet and barked in affirmation. "So, where are you going?" Kishami asked, slinging her school bag onto her back and feeling the comforting sensation of her Duel Disk's ridges poking into her back. She had been forced to leave it in her bag during school hours and was glad to have it back.

And again, at the question, that glint of rapidly-concealed sadness entered Julie's eyes. "Nowhere in particular. What about you?"

Kishami quickly remembered her cover story, and in the process Julie's oddly vague answer slipped her mind. "I'm staying with my uncle Ji while my parents, er, work out some issues,"

"Cool. Think he'd mind if we came over?" Julie asked in excitement. Jinx followed

Kishami paused, then shrugged. "What the hell? Not like he can really say anything against it,"

X

"Who is she and why is she here?" Cooper demanded, pointing at Julie. "Of course, come to think of it, he probably would," Kishami sighed. "I could ask the same question of you," Julie evenly retorted. "You answer first!" Cooper commanded.

"Is that your brother?" Julie incredulously asked. "No!" Kishami exclaimed.

Ji chose that moment to walk in. "Ah, hello Kishami, and - AAAH! Dog!" he gasped in fear at the sight of Jinx, leaping on top of a stool and cringing. The fox barked in irritation. "She's a fox," Julie corrected, equally irritated.

"That's Ji, my uncle," Kishami sighed. "Who said she could come here and bring that - thing - with her?" Ji demanded.

"Who is that jerk? Still want an answer!" Julie barked, pointing at Cooper. "Gee, it's like she's more canine than her fox," Kishami quietly whispered in a rather anime-like fashion.

"Oh, he's, uh, my, ah, assistant! Yes! An old man like me needs someone young to help get things done," Ji, flustered, hastily responded.

Cooper blinked, then frowned, before grabbing the leg of the stool Ji was clinging to for dear life and dragging it into the next room over. "We need a talk, old man," he growled.

Julie shot a questioning glance at the Japanese Ranger. Kishami only shrugged in response.

Antonio appeared in the doorway Ji had walked into. "Dare I ask what's going on in there?" he raised his eyebrows, but they shot higher at the sight of Julie. "Who are you?" he bluntly asked. "A friend of Kishami's. You?"

"I'm a friend of Ji's nephew, Jayden. His parents died when he was a kid," At this, a flash of something saddening echoed through Julie's eyes, and while Kishami took no notice this time, Antonio immediately recognised it, and continued, "so Ji raised him, and I was a childhood friend. My flight to Paris got cancelled, the next one doesn't leave for another day, and my family doesn't live in Panorama anymore, so Ji let me stay here until the next one leaves," the former Samurai Gold explained.

"Ah," Julie nodded, understanding.

X

"Let me get one thing straight, old man," Cooper told Ji with fire in his eyes. "I don't care what cover story you give me, but I am not your servant!" he instructed.

"But if you don't care, then why not at least just say that? It's not like I want you to actually be my servant," Ji logically asked, still perched on his stool.

"Because it's degrading to my reputation!" Cooper vehemently protested.

"Relax. What could be better for one's reputation than being a kind person and assisting the elderly?" Ji asked. "Speaking of which, would you mind rubbing my feet? I think they're developing bunions," he asked.

Cooper paused. "Do you want me to go get my fireman axe? I got it out of the truck during that fight with Number 96,"

"What would you do with an axe?" the sensei frowned, confused. "Chop down a few specimens in a forest of antiques," Cooper growled, gesturing to the dozens of examples of furnishings dating back to feudal Japan. "Please, not the dressing tables! They're five hundred years old!" Ji panicked, and Cooper sighed in exasperation. "And it never occurred to you that that might mean you need new ones?"

X

"Huey! Where did you go?" Kishami shouted through the Shiba House. "You don't know your way around here well, do ya?" Julie commented. "I've been here for all of three days, and this is the sort of place that you need a GPS to find one of the half a dozen bathrooms,"

"Through here!" Huey's voice came from one of the rooms in the next corridor, and the two girls, and the fox, moved towards it.

Huey, hearing the footsteps, looked at where the fusion shard was lying, glowing an innocent spectral white, looking for all the world like a heavenly meteor, and carefully insulated with the material the Collector had provided within a glass fishbowl that was being used as a makeshift containment vessel, but fully visible and in the open.

He hastily snatched up a (probably 300-year-old) tablecloth and draped it over the fishbowl that contained the fusion shard milliseconds before Julie burst in through the ricepaper door.

"What is all this stuff?" she burst out, seeing the lab equipment arrayed around the room. "Oh, he's a science boffin," Kishami shrugged it off.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I knew what anything in here is," Julie shrugged. "Except that flashlight," she optimistically added, gesturing to a piece of old movie equipment. "Er, that's a spotlight," Huey awkwardly corrected the albino girl. "Nevermind,"

Jinx jumped up on the table carrying the concealed fishbowl and sniffed at it. Huey noticed this and quickly ushered the fox back to the ground. "Bad dog," he commanded. Julie stamped her foot. "Fox," she corrected the Blue Ranger.

"Anyway, stay out of here, everything in here is very fragile," Huey instructed, ushering Kishami and Julie out, then closing the door behind him and clipping it shut from the outside. "Boys," Kishami shrugged. "Let's get something to eat," Julie suggested. "Kitchen's this way!" Kishami smiled, leading her new best friend back along the corridor.

Back inside the lab, Jinx, who Huey had unintentionally locked inside his lab, pawed at the door, before realising it was useless, and, ourpt of boredom, jumped back onto the table and started pawing at the covered fishbowl, pushing it towards the edge of the table.

Julie paused halfway to the kitchen. "Where's Jinx?" she asked in sudden realisation. "Oh, Huey must have accidentally locked her in the lab. Come on, let's go get her," Kishami realised, turning and striding purposefully back. Julie followed her, dashing ahead.

With a final shove, Jinx pushed the fishbowl off the table and it fell to the floor. The tablecloth swarmed around the floor as broken glass from the destroyed fishbowl embedded itself in the floor. The protective wrapping around the fusion shard unbillowed and collapsed, leaving the glowing meteor that was the fusion shard exposed.

A click heralded the door being unlocked and swung open as Jinx leapt down, carefully avoiding the jagged splinters of glass. Kishami and Julie both, in an instant, registered the scene, but only Kishami understood it. "Oh no, the fusion shard!" Kishami gasped. "The what?" Julie frowned. "Don't let her touch it!" Kishami panicked.

Julie needed no more prompting, throwing herself forward, arms outstretched. Her left arm reached out to snatch away the shard, the right to grasp and move Jinx out of danger.

Her fingers brushed against the shard at the exact same moment that Jinx batted the glowing meteor with her paw.

Kishami was lucky most of the Shiba House's internal walls were made of ricepaper, because if she had been standing in front of a brick wall the resulting shockwave would have caused her to crack her skull. As it was, the explosion threw her through the wall behind her, where she demolished one of Ji's precious 500-year-old dressing tables before collapsing in a dazed, yet not severely harmed, heap.

X

Cooper was sitting outside on the Shiba House's front porch when he heard the explosion. "What the hell?" he gasped, dashing outside from the shelter of the porch to get a better look. It was a regrettable choice, as a stray piece of wooden framework fell from the sky and knocked him over the head. The ex-fireman slumped to the ground, unconscious.

But from the training yard in the courtyard, Antonio and Huey, the former Samurai Ranger teaching the Blue Fusion Ranger some basic martial arts, had a spectacular view of a huge white and grey Zord with cyan highlights that looked like a huge wild canine of some kind rising out of nowhere, steadily growing until it was a healthy eight storeys tall, average size for a Zord. "Oh shit," Huey breathed. "So that's what happens when one of those fusion shard things bonds with something," Antonio, ever the intelligent one, instantly realised what must have happened and instantly broke it down for his young protégée. "I must have accidentally locked that dog in the lab with the shard," Huey realised in dismay. "And the dog bonded with the shard,"

The newly created Zord was too huge to be fully taken in from the ground, but Huey could hear a deep, rumbling growl that sounded reminiscent of a quietened avalanche. The massive head's glowing, angry-looking red eye as the head dropped itself down and glared at Huey. The eye was a monochrome blood-red, no sign of an iris or pupil, but he somehow knew that the mecha was glaring directly at him. That it blamed him for what had happened to it.

The Fusion Loader crackled to life. "Ballistic Zord, upload!" Ballistamon commanded and the huge beetle-like humanoid mecha appeared, only a mite larger than the fox mecha but due to the difference in shape, towering over it. Ballistamon stood with Huey between his feet, ready to protect his master.

The white-and-cyan Zord growled, almost disdainfully, cast a threatening glare at Huey, before leaping over the Shiba House and into the open countryside.

Kishami staggered out of the door, clutching her head and being supported by Mentor Ji, just in time to see the Zord vanish into the countryside. "Was that Jinx?" she asked in shock. "I believe so, young madam. I will go search for Julie if you think you can take care of yourself," Ji decided, letting Kishami take her own weight. "I'm fine, sensei," she groaned, producing her Duel Disk from nowhere as Ji rushed back into the house. "I activate the spell card," Kishami paused for a second to steady herself, then slapped a card into a slot on the disc and continued, "Photon Sanctuary, allowing me to Special Summon 2 Photon Tokens. I now tribute them to summon Galaxy Caesar, and use his effect to bring out another Galaxy Caesar," In accordance with her moves, two tiny goowing suns appeared, then were replaced by a pair of hulking warriors. "I now activate Level Lifter, raising my Caesar's levels by two. And now I overlay my two Caesars to Xyz Summon," Kishami paused again, panting for breath, "Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max!" she finally declared, slapping the card into the centre slot of her Duel Disk and the Rail Cannon Zord appeared from nowhere. "I equip myself with Pink Rail Ranger," she added, and with the addition of another card to the Disk, morphed.

"You know, you could just put the Rail Cannon card on the disk? I don't think it would change much," Huey suggested.

Kishami bad-temperedly glared at him, before seemingly magically vanishing into the cockpit of her Zord.

"You coming aboard?" Ballistamon's voice echoed from the Fusion Loader. Huey shrugged, and the Ballistic Zord bent down and picked him up.

Antonio pulled out the useless ClawZord Power Disk. "Where are you?" he lamented, thinking back to the days he had spent piloting his home-made Zord.

X

The fox Zord crouched behind a hillock and watched a bus trundle along an underused road. It moved as though to pounce, but then shied back. For an instant, it's eyes flickered to blue as it paused, but then they returned to red and, letting loose a savage howl, leapt upon the bus.

It was sheer luck that the bus was empty of everyone except the driver as the wild Zord's eight-inch steel jaws tore into it. The driver tumbled out through the door in shock and fell to the ground as the mecha tore the bus in half with it's jaws, and chewed on it, before swallowing the top half and letting the bottom half fall to the ground, missing the unconscious driver by an inch.

Then the bottom half was gone in another giant gulp of giant-er robot fox.

X

Kishami moaned as she clutched the spot where her head had hit Ji's dressing table, but floored the accelerator regardless. The Rail Cannon and it's strong wheels and stronger motors had rapidly outpaced the Ballistic Zord, encumbered as it was by the burdens of both feet and clumsiness.

As it was, her cockpit wasn't glass like the other two Zords' and she relied on cameras linked to computer screens to see where she was going.

And it wasn't hard to track down an eight-storey-tall robotic fox.

The Pink Ranger carefully approached the Zord in her Rail Cannon, hoping not to spook the wild Zord but simultaneously unwilling to leave her best method if survival should the Zord decide to attack her.

To the girl's surprise, the intercom crackled to life. A feminine, semi-computerised voice that sounded like it was halfway between a normal teenage girl's voice and the computer voice in elevators burst through the speakers. "Fi-i-ight . . . . . . . . Vi-i-i-i-irus . . . . . . . . Feyuh-Fusion . . . . . . . Load . . . . . Relo-lo-loho-ad,"

"Hello? Whoever's in there, can you hear me?" Kishami said into the microphone of the cockpit.

"R-r-reload . . . . . . . Commencin-cin-cing . . . . . Firewalls . . . . . . . Attention, Shard 0-5-9, Shard 0-2-4 requires fuel conversion and computing assistance. Grant or deny?"

"Er, grant?" Kishami frowned. "Permission granted. Now trans-trans-transferring power,"

"What's wrong? Who are you?" Kishami asked. "Greetings, Kishami. I am the core processing power of Shard Code 024, now designated as the Ice Claw Zord,"

"The Ice Claw Zord. Cool name," Kishami mused. "I am now attempting to combat the problems implanted within me and fully merge with my host,"

"How do you know my name?" Kishami asked. "My host had prior knowledge and I was able to recognise your vocal patterns. I am now erasing the virus implanted in me by Shard 062. Thank you for you and your shard's assistance,"

The Zord collapsed to the ground and it's eyes momentarily turned blue again, but slowly changed back to red. "Error, error, virus is resisting deletion. Kishami, please damage my systems to force the virus to -" The voice cut out, and Kishami saw the Ice Claw Zord raise, look directly at the Rail Cannon and pounced, claws outstretched.

The Pink Ranger remembered the Zord's words. "There must be something controlling it. So that's why te Collector gave us that shard so easily. He had put a virus in it to make whatever it bonded with go berserk!" Kishami realised. And she was angry.

And in accordance with her emotions, the huge hammer on top of the Rail Cannon swung back, then smashed down on the Ice Claw's head seconds before it hit the train Zord. The Ice Claw crashed to the ground, dazed, and concussed, before seemingly vanishing into nothingness.

Kishami gasped as it vanished, before squinting. Nope. It hadn't vanished. Lying there, almost hidden in the grass under her Zord's wheels, was a tiny, almost invisible, snow-white fox. "Jinx," she breathed, instantly exiting her Zord and rushing down to the fallen little fox.

The Japanese girl cradled the little fox in her arms. "Hey, hey, it's okay," she crooned. "You kidding? I feel like my head's on fire. And I'm a iceblock," the fox groaned, eyes closed tight.

Julie gasped in shock and almost dropped the little furry body. "What?"

A/N

**A/N**

**If anyone's wondering about Kishami's comment about America being a lot more fun than Japan, in her terms aliens refers to the Zangyack and Deboss, the villains from Gokaiger and Kyoryuger, sentient computer viruses refers to Messiah and co., from Go-Busters, and demons refers to the Shadow Line and Kibaoni Corps, ToQger and Ninninger's villains. These are all the villains from the most recent five seasons of Super Sentai (at time of writing, as this was written and is set during 2015 and Ninninger is the current season of Sentai.**

**I'm saying this because I have no idea how many readers know both Power Rangers and Super Sentai or just Power Rangers. So if you knew all that already, my bad. Sorry. XD**

**I'm also interested if anyone has any ideas for things for fusion shards to bond with. Keep in mind, the point of the fusion shards is that they can turn anything, ANYTHING at all, into a serviceable giant robot. That's why I picked Ballistamon to become one of the three main mechas. In Digimon Fusion, his body was built with so much combination potential! I had to take advantage! Anyway, if anyone has ideas, tell me. I'm always open to suggestions. ;)**

**And die-hard fans of Power Rangers will recognise the form teacher Ms. K. Manx as the second Legendary cameo. If not, all you need to work it out is google. XD**

**Peace!**


End file.
